Sailing Magazine
by Richard Crockett
Yesterday I shared a feature article written by Frans Loots expressing his disappointment at not find a berth for the 1989 Cape to Uruguay Race and how he went about ensuring he was on the following race.
That feature article struck a chord with many yesterday, so here is the sequel.
The race was just one part of his adventure aboard the Petersen 33 he had secured for the race as he did the delivery passage back home singlehanded.
This is how and why he did that passage singlehanded. “Unlike most singlehanded epics, mine started in my bedroom. Age 17, I was reading about Robin Knox-Johnston being nailed silly way south of the Cape as he entered the Southern Ocean on his solo voyage around the world.
“I thought “Wow! That’s where I’d like to be …. getting nailed in a storm off the Cape. At that stage of my short sailing life the closest I’d been to being nailed in a storm was to swim around my upside-down Sprog in the muddy waters of the Zwartkops river. And I had no idea that the best way to ride out a storm was to go home and hide under your duvet!
“But the seed was planted. A solo Atlantic crossing became a dream. And then the chance to turn the dream into reality came my way.”
Well, Frans did get his storm at sea – and survived it too!
READ ALL ABOUT THAT EPIC PASSAGE HERE: 2002 11 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
